| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Poll: Do you ever proofread your translations on paper? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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neilmac
Spain
Local time: 14:35
Spanish to English
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I often have to translate texts which are always banging on about reducing the amount of paper used in business, so I try to do my bit by recycling as much as possible and using only the minimum of printed material.
However, I do know some people who prefer to proofread their texts on paper. If they are more comfortable working that way, then fair enough.
PS: Having said that, and now perused the other posts, I must admit I'm baffled by why so many colleagues seem to find read... See more I often have to translate texts which are always banging on about reducing the amount of paper used in business, so I try to do my bit by recycling as much as possible and using only the minimum of printed material.
However, I do know some people who prefer to proofread their texts on paper. If they are more comfortable working that way, then fair enough.
PS: Having said that, and now perused the other posts, I must admit I'm baffled by why so many colleagues seem to find reading a text on-screen as unworkable, inefficient or unpleasant. I've never been fond of my handwriting and used to make too many mistakes on old-fashioned typewriters, so was glad when PCs came along and took a lot of the effort out of text work.
On the other hand, I tend to work more slowly than other translators I know who can type quickly, but I usually end up with an initial draft that has few errors, if any.
[Edited at 2015-05-20 11:40 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Thayenga 
Germany
Local time: 14:35
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
The screen is (more) environmentally friendly, so there's no need to kill trees just to do the proofreading.
| | | | | Yes, sometimes | May 20, 2015 |
I like to proofread on paper when there's time and when extra creativity/flow is required. It was particularly useful when working on book translations - it was a lot of paper, but you can always print on the other side (my printer doesn't do double-sided)!
Also, having a paper copy takes you away from the screen and it means you don't have to lug your laptop around if you want to go and, say, work from a café for a couple of hours.
| | | | DZiW (X)
Ukraine
English to Russian
+ ...
| As far as I work directly | May 20, 2015 |
with my clients, I usually double-check my job and recheck the final revision.
Though, I don't mind if a client wants 'just prompting')
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| Print as little as possible | May 20, 2015 |
Come on, we are in the 21st century! There is hardly any need to print anything in the translation process.
Printing out a long document for proofreading is not only wasteful, but makes no sense. I see nothing wrong or difficult with doing on the screen everything others said.
These days my printer is off 99.9% of the time, I only print my invoices, nothing else. Even recycled paper uses a lot of energy in the process of recycling.
[Edited at 2015-05-20... See more Come on, we are in the 21st century! There is hardly any need to print anything in the translation process.
Printing out a long document for proofreading is not only wasteful, but makes no sense. I see nothing wrong or difficult with doing on the screen everything others said.
These days my printer is off 99.9% of the time, I only print my invoices, nothing else. Even recycled paper uses a lot of energy in the process of recycling.
[Edited at 2015-05-20 14:43 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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and one additional reason is that it's an opportunity to get away from the position of sitting on a chair and in front of a screen all the time.
| | | | sarandor
United States
Local time: 08:35
English to Russian
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| Yes, sometimes | May 21, 2015 |
To give my eyes a break from staring at the screen for hours or to get a better visual of the final translation, especially if I had to format the file to match the source myself.
| | | | Julian Holmes
Japan
Local time: 21:35
Member (2011)
Japanese to English
Except speeches, company profiles, IR materials, tourism brochures, other creative writing, etc. that require a couple of extra looks.
More than 95% of my work is tech translation and is done in a famous CAT tool beginning with the letter 'T'. I enlarge text on screen to make it easy to read from about 70 cm away from the screen. This is all I need.
A major reason that I hardly ever proofread on paper is that a lot of jobs:
(1) have locked segments that don't req... See more Except speeches, company profiles, IR materials, tourism brochures, other creative writing, etc. that require a couple of extra looks.
More than 95% of my work is tech translation and is done in a famous CAT tool beginning with the letter 'T'. I enlarge text on screen to make it easy to read from about 70 cm away from the screen. This is all I need.
A major reason that I hardly ever proofread on paper is that a lot of jobs:
(1) have locked segments that don't require my attention, and
(2) have partial matches where all I have to do is make sure that new parts to varying extents are correctly translated.
The display area on screen which indicates where text in segments do not match similar sentences in the TM is very helpful. I would not be able to turn this feature to good advantage if I were to proof on paper and this would conversely generate unnecessary work for me.
Small edit
[Edited at 2015-05-21 05:19 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Julian Holmes wrote:
Except speeches, company profiles, IR materials, tourism brochures, other creative writing, etc. that require a couple of extra looks.
Same here.
For this type of work I've found no better way of ensuring that the final rendition is to the best of my ability.
| | | | Jaime Oriard
Mexico
Local time: 06:35
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
| Not in years | May 21, 2015 |
I used to print everything (source and target), but not in the last 10 years or so. Besides using all tools provided by CAT's & word processors, I have a TTS engine read the text out loud for me while I follow with my eyes. This helps a lot especially for typos. I guess I'm better at identifying them with my hearing than with my eyes. Also, I do all my final proofing in a PDF.
| | | | Mario Freitas
Brazil
Local time: 09:35
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
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| Most of the time I don't | May 21, 2015 |
just out of laziness or to save paper and ink when the document is too long.
But I can assure you, proofreading a hard copy is far more efficient than on the screen.
[Edited at 2015-05-21 18:22 GMT]
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